Unions

Category archives for Unions

The old saw that ‘we hang together or we get hung separately‘ is a perfect description of how the left has disintegrated into irrelevance. Too often, groups will focus on modest gains for their own narrow constituency, while selling out other allies. Over the long term, each component of the coalition is so weakened, making…

If our mainstream political discourse is to be believed, the U.S. ‘doesn’t make anything anymore.’ We should all become ‘knowledge workers’, constantly reinvent our personal brand. Manufacturing–and the engineering it takes to support efficient manufacturing processes–are anachronisms. Hell, everything these days in made in China, right? But like most popular economic bromides, this is utter…

Because these are the idiots you’ve allied yourselves with: …many of these voucher advocates claim they simply want to expand school choice and improve the quality of education for all. Yet one group that has been influential in the school voucher push — the Independence Hall Tea Party, which has run a major PAC that…

A couple of years ago, regarding the typical charter school model, I argued that the model of overworked, undercompensated, and under-‘resourced’ teachers was not sustainable: One of the things that I’ve long suspected about charter schools is that they’re an unsustainable model: they rely on incredibly motivated teachers (who I think are a pretty motivated…

So I was pleasantly surprised to read about this strong pro-union move by the Rockefeller Republican Obama Administration–it’s definitely not par for the course: In what may be the strongest signal yet of the new pro-labor orientation of the National Labor Relations Board under President Obama, the agency filed a complaint Wednesday seeking to force…

I’m a bit late to this story, but, if you missed it, the LA Times had a superb article about how IKEA treats and pays workers at its U.S. facilities much worse than at its Swedish factories: Workers complain of eliminated raises, a frenzied pace and mandatory overtime. Several said it’s common to find out…

Mike Konczal put together this nice graphic of Wisconsin governor Scott Walker’s roadmap to a batshitloonitarian paradise: Konczal notes: There’s a three-prong approach in Governor Walker’s plan that highlights a blueprint for conservative governorship after the 2010 election. The first is breaking public sector unions and public sector workers generally. The second is streamlining benefits…

By now, you might have heard about how the Wisconsin Senate Democrats have fled the state in order to prevent a bill from passing, supported by Republican Governor Scott Walker, that would cripple public sector unions (if it’s about redressing the budget, then why does the bill deal with union dues, which have nothing to…

Republican governor of Wisconsin, Scott Walker, has claimed that he needs to bust unions in order to deal with a budget crisis. Well, he’s lying, since this is a ‘crisis’ entirely of his own doing: The reality is radically different. Unlike true austerity measures — service rollbacks, furloughs, and other temporary measures that cause pain…

If you haven’t heard, Democrats in Wisconsin have refused to allow Republican governor Rick Walker to eliminate the right of public sector employees to collectively bargain. One of the key issues is the cost of public sector pensions. But what’s interesting is this little tidbit from David Cay Johnston (italics mine): Well, Dylan, I think…